New Delhi: Two persons have been arrested for allegedly printing fake notes of Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 denominations and circulating them in weekly markets in south-west Delhi, with police seizing fake notes of the face value of Rs6 lakhs from them.

The team probing the matter found that a syndicate, operating in Uttam Nagar, Dwarka among others, is involved in printing and circulating fake currency in the market to hamper country’s economy, DCP (Southwest) Surender Kumar said.

Several incidents of circulation of fake Indian currency notes has come to light in areas like Dwarka and Uttam Nagar post demonetisation move by the government. On 9 January, acting on a tip-off that two persons in possession of fake currency notes are trading it at 50% of the amount, a constable was deployed as a decoy customer, who along with a shadow witness, struck the deal with the accused persons.

“A trap was laid near Shamshan Ghat, Kiran Garden, Bindapur and at about 4 pm, accused persons Ashish (23) and Krishan Bhardwaj (25) arrived there and each handed over fake notes of the face value of Rs4,000 to the constable and received Rs2,000 from him,” said the officer.

The raiding party arrested both the accused, he said. “During investigation, Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 denomination of the face value of Rs6,10,500 were seized from them. Computer and printing equipments used for printing the notes were also seized from their possession,” said the officer.

The mastermind of the fake currency racket has been identified as Ashish, a mobile phone technician and Krishan. The duo printed the fake notes with the help of high quality scanner and printer and used to circulate it in the weekly markets. They had even lent money to their friends, asking them to pay half of the amount, he said.

“The duo came in contact around two years back and conspired to print fake currency, initially of Rs100 and circulated it. A dispute arose on the issue of distribution of earned money and both parted ways,” the officer said, adding they later patched up.